To be honest I hadn't even thought it possible that it could ever be right
to not bear off two checkers with non-doubles, unless filling a gap from a
stack. And it is even more surprising that it could be right to do so while
wasting a pip.
What's different here is that sacrificing one checker (and one pip) now
when we are now odd, creates the possibility of taking two more checkers
off next roll.
A rare aligning of the planets here.